Experiments with Sugaring

We were on a walk the other morning and saw three maple trees tapped in a neighbor's yard.  I thought to myself, "hey, we have maple trees in our back yard and a tap from a past maple festival," so when we got home, I got to work.  I knew from attending maple festivals in the past that the weather was currently perfect for sugaring - under freezing at night, and over freezing during the day.

I gathered the tap, a drill, and a milk jug for collecting the sap.  We went into the back yard, bored a whole in the tree, and sure enough, the sap started flowing.

This got us thinking.  We looked round the yard and spotted a couple more maples.  Here's a shot of a particularly large one.  Based on some reading, we went ahead and put in three taps.

Given the right conditions, this tree will produce almost three gallons of sap per day!

After the collection process, it was time to boil.  We didn't do anything fancy, just collected it in a Dutch oven and turned up the heat.

It was fascinating to watch the sap transform from a cool, slightly sweet, refreshing beverage that is clear in color:

To an increasingly dark and much sweeter substance as the water boiled off:

It really is amazing how much moisture boils off before you get close to the point where you have nice, viscous syrup:

Here's a shot close to the finishing stage, with a ladle-full of fresh sap for contrast.

After much boiling, we got to that beautiful, golden color:

The first boil, I let it go too long and ended up with grainy, delicious maple butter.  Using a Thermapen, I started to get more precise, looking for temperatures between 217 to 219 degrees:

The result was delicious, golden syrup with just a bit of condensed sugar at the bottom.

We found that two passes through a coffee filter removed impurities to the point it could be poured on pancakes.  The first pass goes through a coffee filter on the way into the boiling pan.  The second pass is after the sap has been reduced "enough."

On a Sunday morning, we were just completed the finishing boil for a batch and poured it straight out of the pot onto fresh, blueberry pancakes:

It was delicious and fun, and generated a lot of conversation about how fortunate we are to be able to walk into any given grocery store and find maple syrup on any day of the year.

If you have maple trees, I highly recommend giving it a shot the next time temperatures are above freezing during the day and below freezing at night.  If you're looking to get started, I thought this article did a nice job explaining the process.  I didn't do a sap hydrometer or use an evaporator, I just boiled on the stove and it all worked out.